BY LUCAS BAIRD
Two Councillors have slammed Clover Moore’s continued use of ratepayer’s money to push her political agenda.
Labor’s Linda Scott and the Liberal mayoral hopeful, Christine Forster, have grown concerned over the Mayor of Sydney’s use of public information campaigns to sway voters.
This issue reached a head last council meeting where questions were put to the Mayor about anti-WestConnex pamphlets that were delivered to over 98 thousand letterboxes.
The pamphlet was approved as a part of a public awareness campaign that the council passed on May 16, but has been criticised for misleading voters to think that it came only from the Mayor.
“I am strongly concerned that public moneys (sic) are being used to indicate that the message is only coming from one political party,” Clr Scott told City Hub.
Clr Scott said that while she strongly supported public information campaigns like this and is against WestConnex, the information needed to be accurate, balanced, and reflective of the positions of councillors. Pointing out that she was the first councillor to take issue with a portion of the project taking green space from Sydney Park.
Clr Forster said that this has become a running issue for the City of Sydney. She cited the ‘Save Moore Park’ campaign as an example of the Lord Mayor using rate-payers money to push her agenda in the past.
Clr Forster also noted that the pamphlet did not contain an “authorised by the City of Sydney Council” annotation that was required of all election material.
The Mayor denied that this was in any part election material in the June 27th council meeting.
However, Clr Forster said it was “plainly a piece of electioneering” and the Mayor’s “own piece of political propaganda”.
“This pamphlet was issued during a federal campaign when there was federal money committed to Westconnex,” Clr Forster told City Hub.
“The Lord Mayor is bending the rules here and she knows it.”
However, a spokesperson for the Lord Mayor said that this was all above board because the Lord Mayor is the elected spokesperson for the City.
They also added that because WestConnex is a growing issue in the area, it was her duty to inform the residents.
